Daily Devotional – November 29

Biology

You probably know that God created many birds and mammals with incredible parenting skills. But you may be amazed at the effort a tiny amphibian living in the remote forests of Central America takes to ensure its offspring’s survival. Many frog species simply lay their eggs in water and leave the scene. Not so with the strawberry poison dart frog. She lays her eggs on the damp rainforest floor instead of in a pond like most frogs. The father stays vigilant over the fertilized eggs keeping them moist. When a tadpole hatches, it wriggles onto the mother’s back. She hops away, usually looking for the rain-filled part of the bromeliad plant, which holds pools of water. Here she leaves her tadpole in the plant’s pool of water and goes back to fetch her other tadpoles, giving each a piggyback ride to a different pool of water. Daily, she will visit 3-9 tadpoles and feeds each one an unfertilized egg. She cares for her tadpoles, in this manner, for six to eight weeks until they become frogs and can hop out.

How does the tadpole know to hop onto the mom’s back? How does the mom know to give him a piggyback ride to a pool of water? How does the mom remember each place to visit? How does she know to feed them an unfertilized egg? Most frogs just lay their eggs and hop away. If the strawberry poison dart frog had hopped away like other frogs, there would be no more strawberry poison dart frogs; this behavior and all its parts had to happen the first time! God designed this just to show us how creative He could be.

Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.

~ Psalm 150:6

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

References for this devotional.